


Luminous and Pale

by Lassarina



Series: Lucis Ante Terminum [9]
Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: F/M, Masturbation, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-18
Updated: 2009-08-18
Packaged: 2017-10-30 01:55:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/326474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/pseuds/Lassarina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kain knows it is wrong to watch Rosa and Cecil thus, but he cannot look away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Luminous and Pale

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a prompt fest--I cannot recall which one--for the prompt "Voyeurism: to look is wrong, to look away, impossible."

After the endless shrill song of the marsh insects outside, the cave system near the ruins of Eblan Castle was almost sacred in its silence. Kain preferred its chill damp to the muggy air outside, where walking felt more like swimming and he struggled to draw enough air. Though it was cooler, the walls of the cave pressed inward and down, with scarcely enough room for a half-jump. Dragon Knights were not meant to be enclosed thus.

Rosa stumbled on a loose rock, and he caught her with a careful hand beneath her elbow. She smiled and thanked him, and he gave her a half-bow in response, not trusting his voice. Her smiles came more easily now, shadowed less by the memory of the Tower of Zot and what he had helped Golbez do there—or so he comforted himself.

"Rosa, are you all right?" Cecil turned and offered her his arm.

She smiled and nodded, going forward to meet him. Kain dropped back to walk beside Rydia, who was picking her way carefully over the uneven floor. He still had trouble reconciling the tall, confident woman with the scared and angry child he had first met, but she was willing to keep her own counsel instead of babbling anxiously in an effort to make it seem that his betrayal had never happened, and for that he preferred her company to Cecil and Rosa's.

"She's getting tired," Rydia said quietly, tilting her head forward to indicate Rosa.

"We will need to rest soon," Kain agreed. He wondered if any of the Eblanese had survived. A few had survived the bombardment of Damcyan, but their capital had been sparsely populated; Eblan was a more centralized nation.

Cecil advanced toward a passageway that loomed in front of them, but pulled up short when the haphazard piles of bones around him began to rise to life. Kain sprinted forward to step ahead of Rosa, who drew back to stand with Rydia, both of them already chanting the arcane syllables that would bring their magic to life. Kain slashed at the nearest skeleton with his spear, managing to land a blow exactly in the center of its breastbone that shattered its ribcage. It crumpled back to the floor, moaning eerily.

Fire whooshed past his head, narrowly missing his helmet, and exploded in a wave of heat that almost physically knocked him backwards. The skeletons fared far worse, shattering into charred heaps of bone fragments in the wake of Rydia's spell. Only one now remained upright, and the white light of Rosa's Cure sliced through it to sever the dark magic animating it at the same time Cecil's sword crushed its skull.

Kain looked back to ensure that Rosa was all right, and then proceeded forward. The yawning darkness of the archway gave way to a familiar pale-blue shimmer. "There is a sanctuary field here," he called back to them.

"Excellent," Cecil said, and offered his arm to Rosa again to lead her forward. Kain did not bother to do the same for Rydia; not only did she not need it, but the one time he _had_ offered out of courtesy, she had snorted disdainfully and then proceeded to prove how little she needed his aid. He had taken the hint and waited for her to ask for assistance thereafter.

He waited for the others to precede him into the shielded chamber, keeping a wary eye out for more skeletons or other unfortunate cave denizens. When none appeared, he joined the others.

The process of setting up camp went quickly and quietly; he made sure to keep himself out of easy speaking distance from Cecil or Rosa while they laid out the bedrolls, and instead prepared their simple meal over the campfire that Rydia had conjured.

As was usual for them, they did not stay up late talking; too many evenings had been spent with too little sleep while they stood guard in pairs. A safe space such as this one was not to be wasted. Kain found a rocky shelf protruding from the wall about halfway up, and took his bedroll there, preferring even the illusion of height to the ground. Rydia curled up on her bedroll and seemed instantly asleep; Kain lay back on his and feigned the same. He could hear Cecil and Rosa talking very quietly below him.

He noticed when they fell abruptly silent.

He heard a faint rustling of fabric, and told himself that to look was wrong, and worse, dishonorable. Then he heard Rosa's soft laughter, and caught the pale flash of her hair beneath him out of the corner of his eye.

She had laid aside her white cloak and her close-fitted armour, and her skin in the faint blue glow of the sanctuary field seemed to shine with a pale radiance. Cecil's hands were drawing her undergarment up over her head as she knelt astride his hips. Kain watched, rapt, as the creamy linen slide aside to reveal equally soft skin. Cecil laid the garment aside and rested his hands on Rosa's shoulders, then stroked them downward. She tilted her head back and made a soft sound of pleasure, audible only because he was so close above them.

Kain wished, futilely, that he had not laid aside his own garments before lying down to sleep. Perhaps the discomfort of his current physical state in the constriction of clothes would have helped him to look away.

Rosa said something softly to Cecil, and she leaned down to kiss him. Kain drew a sharp breath at the feel of his own hand on his cock, scarred and rough—as he knew Cecil's hands would be on Rosa's fair skin. He watched her undo Cecil's tunic and trousers, and watched when she rose up on her knees to take him into her.

He had to bite his lip to hold back a groan, thinking of what she would feel like. He knew the feel of her skin; they had run wild together as children and more recently—well, best not to think of that, but he could imagine its softness beneath his hands. Though her hands were roughened by bow and arrow, he thought they must be softer than his own.

Cecil's hands stroked up Rosa's sides to cup her breasts, and she began to move over him. Kain watched in fascination as her hips rocked, Cecil's moving upward to meet her, and her pale hands stroked Cecil's skin.

This was his best friend; he ought not be watching, never mind imagining himself in Cecil's place. He loathed himself for his weakness. Yet he could not bring himself to look away as she moved faster, her body pale and luminous in the sanctuary's light, shuddering on top of Cecil. Kain's hand moved faster on his cock, tension twisting tight as Rosa threw back her head with a soft cry, and then he, too, shuddered, spend sticky and warm on his hand.

He rolled away to face the rocky wall of the cavern, but though he squeezed his eyes tightly shut, he could not rid himself of the image of Rosa like a creature spun of moonlight, moving atop him and crying out in pleasure.

It was a long time before he slept.


End file.
